The Age Entertainment

via theage.com
Hamer Hall, June 12
For a pint-sized speck of a person, Kristin Chenoweth sure does generate some gravitational pull.
With charisma, humour and a voice that soared from an operatic soprano to the husky shades of Minelli-era Cabaret, she drew an enraptured audience ever-deeper into her orbit on Wednesday with a potted history of her favourite musical theatre, country, gospel and pop tunes.
It was a showbiz revue as Bette Midler or even Chenoweth's idol, Dolly Parton, might have done, full of brassy one-liners bumped up against her more natural, sunny personality.
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Making stops along the length of Broadway, and at parts of her Oklahoma childhood, she visited works by music greats including Hal David and Burt Bacharach; Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jerome Kern; Dolly and Barbara. Two songs from the smash-hit musical Wicked, Popular and For Good, were clear favourites even as Chenoweth introduced a multi-lingual component to the former and some rewarding audience participation in the latter.
It was a repertoire, she said, of "songs that show off and some that don't". And while the crowd cheered wildly no matter what she said or sang, Chenoweth's ability to instantly bring light and shade to her performance – at once bawdy dance-hall performer and devout Christian testifier - was a real highlight.
Backed by a 12-piece band and three vocalists who, at times unconvincingly, also played the comic foils to her onstage theatrics, it was clear from the outset (the photo montages helped, too) that that this would be the Kristin Show. And Melbourne was ready to cheer.
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